…our monthly look ahead at events that we can use as part of our marketing campaigns.

In Australia, March 1 is the  official first day of autumn.  Outside of that, there’s no specifically Australian events…

…although St Patrick’s Day (March 17) tends to be celebrated very enthusiastically!

Elsewhere…

March 1 – St David’s Day

March 8 – International Women’s Day

March 15 – Ides Of March

March 17 – St Patrick’s Day

March 30-31 – Passover

In the northern hemisphere it’s springtime, of course.

Easter falls slightly late this year on April 2, but well worth planning ahead for this.

Related to Easter is Lent, which could be linked to health and diet themes. Lent in 2010 started on February 17 and concludes on April 3.

You’ll find the usual off beat holidays over at www.BlueMountain.com.   My favourite this month is “Procrastination Week” March 1-7.  Just make sure you don’t put off your marketing promotion though!

P.S. In the UK it’s “Mothers Day” on March 14.

…lack of posting, posts disappearing etc…

…well unfortunately the site got hacked.

If you found your browser being hijacked and directed away to another site…

…or you were alerted to a virus threat…

…many apologies.

After being alerted to the problem I investigated ways to solve the issue.  Not being terribly tech savvy, in the end the easiest thing to do was completely “Nuke” the site and start again.

So, I’ve been reinstalling everything…

…plus trying to make sure that site security is improved.

The one saving grace to all of this is that at least I had a clean backup of data.  Unfortunately it wasn’t totally up to date…

…hence the “lost” posts.

Once again, apologies for any problems…

…and normal service will be resumed shortly!

I’m a big fan of the original stories and have read them many, many times.  So there’s always a degree of trepidation when someone decides to “interpret” a classic.

In this case, however, the director Guy Ritchie is himself a fan of the books and has gone back to the source material.  And there is plenty in the original stories to support a darker and edgier take on Holmes (recall his cocaine habit, for example).

And Watson was never the buffoon he’s made out to be in most of the best known adaptions.

Anyway, here’s the trailer…

In our customary scoring system…

A-Attention

Appropriately spooky music and waste no time setting the scene before a dramatic segue into the next section.  OK, it’s a little cliched but it works pretty well.

Score – 2

I – Interest

With a movie like this, where most people have some knowledge of the character and the broad story, the art is to keep people guessing and pique interest in what new twists and turns there are.  This section cuts quickly from clip to clip but gives a good idea of the theme and the plot.  Again, a decent job.

Score – 2

D – Desire

OK, I’m a fan so I was probably going to go anyway.  But, as I said, the big problem with a reinterpretation is the risk of alienating current fans.  People tend to have very strong ideas about what favourite books and characters should look like.  In this case, I think Ritchie has done a good job and I’m genuinely curious to see his version of the great Holmes (plus, I admire Downey Jr).

For non hardcore fans, I think the movie looks pretty interesting with plenty of action and the draw of a Guy Ritchie movie plus the high profile cast.

Score  – 2

Bonus Mark – 1. Overall the trailer is fine, so worth an overall…

Total – 7

Feel free to score this yourself and post a comment.

…you’re most likely aware that there has been a fair amount of discussion and not a little concern about new guidelines issued by the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) relating to online marketers.

Specifically, as how they relate to bloggers, affiliates and the use of testimonials.

Marketing maven Jim Edwards has done the internet marketing community a great service by going straight to the source and interviewing Rich Cleland of the FTC about these new guidelines.

You can watch the webinar right here…

http://www.igottatellyou.com/blog/ftc-change-interview/

It’s completely free, nothing to buy and in the spirit of the FTC regs, I am NOT an affiliate (LOL!).

Seriously, all marketers and copywriters need to be on top of this and a big “Thank You” to Jim for organising this and making it freely available.

If you’re not in the US, don’t think this doesn’t apply to you.  Most countries have similar laws (in Australia it’s the ACCC and the Trades Practices Act) and the FTC is often seen by other authorities as setting the standard.

Not too late to launch your own Christmas or New Year promotion. With “New Year’s Resolutions” and plans for 2010 on people’s minds right now, it’s a great time to promote health, personal development and pretty much anything linked to achievement and business.

Now, looking ahead to January…

…the main theme is the start of the New Year (and remember it’s also a new decade).

Here in Australia, it’s the summer holidays and “Australia Day” on January 26.

In the USA it’s Martin Luther King Day on January 18.

And  you’ll find the usual selection of lesser known events over at www.BlueMountain.com…

…including Elvis Presley’s birthday (January and “International Thank You Day” (January 11).

Advance notice…Chinese New Year is on February 14 this coming year.

“Salesman Of The Irrational”

It’s all about a Swiss marketer called Jean-Claude Biver who has an impressive record of success in marketing  high end watches.

Couple of points to note…

1. What he’s really selling is exclusivity and cachet.  It’s not really about the watches.

2. Note a great example of differentiation with the Blancpain brand and making a virtue out of what was seen as a problem.

You may not be selling $100,000 watches but there are great lessons here for any marketer.  The key question…

“What are you really selling?”

Retail stores have been in full “Christmas Mode” for weeks already…

…so if you haven’t yet started to plan your own promotion, there’s no time to lose.

I’ve mentioned before that the start of the New Year is a great time to promote…

…any products or services that tie in with people’s plans and hopes for the coming year.

In Australia, December also sees the end of the school year and the beginning of the summer holidays.

In the northern hemisphere, the Winter Solstice falls on 21 December (with the Summer Solstice in the southern hemisphere on 22 December).

It’s also the Jewish festival of Hanukkah (begins December 12 this year)  and the African-American festival of Kwanzaa (Dec 26-Jan 1).

If the main holidays don’t give you enough opportunities, as always you’ll find a host of other events listed by the good folks over at www.BlueMountain.com.

December is “Read-A-Book Month” …

…and continuing the literary theme, December 16 is Jane Austen’s birthday.

UPDATE: Not on topic about December but here’s a useful example of using an event as a reason for a marketing promotion.

Last month I mentioned that the 13th falls on a Friday this November.

So, I was delighted to see an email from the great Mark Joyner with the subject line…

“Why Friday The 13th Is Your Lucky Day…”

There follows a nicely written piece of email copy talking about the history of “Friday 13th” and superstition that leads into an offer for Mark’s “Mind Control Marketing”.

(If you’re interested you can check it out here…   http://www.MindControlMarketing.com
I’ve got the original book and it’s well worth a read for serious marketers and copywriters).

Whatever happened to 2009?

Well the year is not over yet so you have plenty of time to take advantage of one of the peak times of the year for pretty much any business.

Now is the time to start thinking ahead to a Christmas promotion and then…

…a New Year promotion.  Remember, people pretty much all look at the coming year full of high hopes and good intentions…

…so this is a great time to offer personal development and business building programs.

As for November itself…

…in Australia the big event is Melbourne Cup day on Tuesday November 3.

In the USA, “Thanksgiving” is on Thursday November 26, with one of the biggest shopping days of the year on the day following (“Black Friday”, so called because that’s when the bulk of retailers actually get into profit for the year, according to industry folklore).

According to the good folks over at “Blue Mountain”, November is “Peanut Butter Lover’s Month” and also “Sleep Comfort Month”, among other things!

Some interesting holidays…

“World Kindness Day” – Nov 13

“Universal Children’s Day” – Nov 20

“St Andrew’s Day” – Nov 30

…and it’s a “Friday 13th” month as well (and Boris Karloff’s birthday on Nov 23 for horror fans!).

You can find a host of other “events” over at “Blue Mountain”.

Another good source of information about events and anniversaries is over at Wikipedia.

Anyway, it was enough to get me to look into the movie a little more and…

…wow!  OK, I’m a sucker for Sci-Fi but this looks very cool.

Here’s the trailer…

OK on our scoring scheme…

A – Attention

Got my interest, for sure! Wham! No messing around, straight into things.  Love the set up and note the “pitch” for the surrogates.  Seems awfully familiar to ad copy writers…

“You can live your life without limitations…Be anyone you want to be from the comfort and safety of your own home.  Without risk or danger.  You can finally live the life you’ve always dreamt of.”

Score: 2.5

I – Interest

From the opening we get into the story and once again, does a good job.  Now, I understand the movie is based on a graphic novel series (“comics” to people like me!) and I haven’t read it. People who have read the “book” may see things a little differently, of course.  But hey, I’m interested.

Score: 2

D- Desire

Yup, count me in!  OK, as mentioned, I’m a Sci-Fi fan and any movie with Bruce Willis has to have something going for it! Plus, I’m intrigued by the story and want to know what happens.

Score: 3

Bonus Mark: 0.5 (I’ve already scored this pretty highly and although I think this is a good trailer, it’s not THAT good!)

Overall, love the trailer and I’ll be seeing the movie (OK, that might have something to do with not having been to the movies for ages…I’ve been locked away working for the last month or so)!

Total: 8

OK…what do you think?  Feel free to post a comment…

UPDATE: Ended up going to see the movie the other day and I have to say it was a little disappointing.  Couple of good plot twists but at the end the movie just seemed to fizzle out.  Enjoyed the evening out, but I’ll pass on the DVD. As I said, not a bad movie, just I was expecting (hoping?) for a little more.

In Australia…

October  5 – Labour Day (NSW and ACT), “May Day” in SA

There’s also the start of School Term 4 and…

October 31 – Halloween!

…with all sorts of opportunities for “Spooky” promotions.

In the USA…

October 12 – Columbus Day

And over at BlueMountain you’ll find a host of other “events” for the month of October (such as “Cookie Month”, Global Learn Day – October 8, The Internet’s Birthday – October 29).